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But she didn’t speak to them because she needed more time to grieve following Ava-Joy’s passing in January, just 96 minutes after she was born.

Hayley, 30, was shocked when she tuned into the soap last week to discover character Chas Dingle undergoing the exact same trauma that she faced last year.

In the show, Chas, played by Lucy Pargeter, 41, is expecting a baby with fiancé Paddy Kirk, and in a recent episode attended a scan without her partner.

She was dealt a horrific blow when she learnt that her baby girl could have bilateral renal agenesis, a rare condition which occurs when kidneys fail to develop in a foetus - the exact same condition suffered by Hayley’s tot.

Devastated Chas broke down upon learning the news and decided to keep the baby's diagnosis a secret.

Now Hayley has criticised the show for handling the story insensitively.

Hayley said: “I wouldn’t have been so upset but she hasn’t even been dead six months.

“Even if they were to turn around and say it’s not about us, clearly it is.

“It’s a little bit too soon after what happened with Ava, you can’t deny that.

Paddy breaks down in Emmerdale after Chas tells him the news about their baby (Image: ITV)

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“Even when Chas sat on the swing talking to her baby, it sounds like what I said on This Morning.

“They got in touch with me to see if I would be willing to speak to me, and at the time I said yes.

“But I didn’t feel ready to speak to them yet, and then I saw it on TV.

“I watched the show and the story is just too similar to ours, it would have been nice to have a warning.

“It was like losing Ava all over again. It was traumatic.

“People on Facebook have picked up on it and been chatting about the similarities.”

Ava-Joy had been diagnosed with bilateral renal agenesis - a rare genetic disorder.

It is always fatal and means the baby has no kidneys or bladder and is not surrounded by enough amniotic fluid, causing underdeveloped lungs.

Hayley and Scott, of Hull, were told their baby would die at birth, or shortly after, and there was no hope of a cure and were advised to terminate the pregnancy.

But they decided to take it to full term, so Ava’s heart tissue and other organs could be donated to another sick child.

And whilst watching the show, Hayley says she noticed errors which should have been picked up.

Hayley Martin with a scan of her tragic baby Ava-Joy (Image: Triangle News)

She said: “One of the actors went on This Morning and said it was more common in older people

“It’s not, it’s more common in people who have a predisposition to it or it's just a fluke.

“It has nothing to do with age. It's actually more common in pregnancies where the baby is a male, or if they are twins.

“They got the basic facts wrong.”

Emmerdale has been running for over 43 years and has more than seven million viewers a week.

A spokeswoman said: "Emmerdale regret any distress caused to Hayley and Scott Martin as a result of the Bilateral Renal Agenesis storyline, which was was set in motion long before we were made aware of this couple’s tragic loss.

“The Emmerdale research department is continuing to work with a variety of organisations and individuals on this ongoing storyline."